


Heat Pads, Ice Packs, and Pain Pills

by ClayJackson



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Gotham (TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Chronic Pain, M/M, Pain Flare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 22:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14271072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClayJackson/pseuds/ClayJackson
Summary: Oswald has chronic pain. Not just in his ankle, but all throughout his body. Ed works with him to learn how to relieve the pain as much as they can together.





	Heat Pads, Ice Packs, and Pain Pills

Sometimes the pain is so bad that Oswald can’t get out of bed. Well, technically he could, but why on earth would he? He wants to, of course. He gets frustrated, angry, distraught at being unable to move without pain shooting its way through his nervous system. 

It’s rainy days that cause it the worst, or snowy days when it’s cold. The cold itself could be bad enough to cause a flare. Just about any weather worse than mildly overcast would slowly rile the pain until it became unbearable. 

Most days he was at a five, maybe a six on the pain scale (a fake concept to begin with, but it was the easiest way to put it into words). On these days though, it would jump up to an eight, nine when it’s really bad (another reason the pain scale was fake, the only time he had blacked out from pain was from bullet wounds, and sometimes he would take that over this).

It’s on these days, when Oswald wakes up from a terrible, restless sleep and groans low in his throat that Ed stays home. Oswald hated it at first. The only one who had seen him at his worst like this was his mother. But slowly over time, over the course of cultivating a relationship, Oswald starts to trust him and reveals the not so tasteful sides of himself. 

Ed wakes up to labored breathing, harsh and sharp. He rolls over, gentle hands seeking out his partner’s aching body. He wraps arms around him, rolling to lay some of his body on Oswald to give pressure. He gets a small sigh in return.

He holds him like that for a long time until Oswald grumbles about needing to pee. Ed rolls off him and wraps arms around his midsection, hoisting him up into a sitting position. Grabs a cane, brings it to the bed, helps him stand and forces the stick into his hand. 

All the pillows get pushed to Oswald’s side of the bed to support his aching body. Thick, heavy blankets laid over him to put pressure on him. The temperature is turned up just slightly to push the cold back, at least for a moment. 

They use a combination of heat pads, ice packs, and different rubs and creams to relax muscles, calm nerves, dial back the pain. It’s a cycle of hot and cold, rolling over, rubbing muscles, and taking pills, that they’ve slowly fallen into. 

Sometimes it’s too much for them to manage and Oswald stays in bed for as long as he can, Ed bringing him small bits of food and water, stuff that’s gentle on the stomach in case the pain makes him sick. He feels terrible about making Ed do things for him, but Ed constantly reassures him that he’s not a burden. I don’t mind taking care of you, Ed says countless times.

Oswald didn’t believe him, always thinking that Ed was doing it out of pity or as a sort of leverage over him. But the way he says it, so soft and sweet, his beautiful brown eyes sincere. He eventually comes to accept it, lets Ed take care of him without putting up a fuss, even learns how to ask him for things or let him know when things aren’t working. 

It takes time, weeks and months of repeated trial and error, but they learn how to ride out the pain together, learn how to cope with it in their day to day lives. They learn to live with it. Not despite of it, but rater as an intimate, innate part of their relationship.


End file.
